


Takes its toll, my foolish pride

by destielonfire



Category: Supernatural
Genre: First Kiss, Flustered Castiel, Jealous Dean, M/M, Sam Ships It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 12:05:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9322823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destielonfire/pseuds/destielonfire
Summary: Sam, Dean and Castiel attend their first hunters gathering after Asa Fox's wake.Featuring a sneaky Sam, a flirty Max Bane (who has his sights set on a certain angel of the Lord) and a jealous Dean.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an anon prompt:  
> Hey I was wondering if you could write a Drabble/ficlet where TFW is at a hunter reunion or something and a guy keeps hitting on Cas and he's getting all flustered and it makes dean jealous and realize how much Cas actually means to him *cough-destiel* Maybe have a little bit of background shipper!sam if possible.

Jody had invited them to a hunter gathering in Iowa, enticing them with the promise that Alex and Claire as well as Mary would be there as well. They all readily agreed to go – Dean and Sam because they hadn’t seen Mary since Asa Fox’s wake, and Castiel because he wanted to catch up with Claire. Dean wouldn’t admit it, but he was also looking forward to seeing the little brat again.

So here they were, in a bar that had been rented out for the occasion. There were about fifty people there, which, for hunting standards, was a big deal. If any of their more powerful enemies were to find out they were all gathered there…

The dark thought fled Dean’s mind when a beaming Jody came up to them.

“Dean, Sam, Castiel, so glad you could make it,” she said, embracing them each in turn.

“Hey Jody, glad to be here,” Sam replied. Dean grunted in response, but his smile belied his fondness for her. Castiel was looking around, his eyes flickering from face to face.

“I bet I know who you’re looking for.” Jody smiled knowingly. “Claire’s over there,” she said, pointing at the corner of the room where the young woman was sitting in one of the booths next to Alex, chatting animatedly.

“Thank you. It is good to see you again, Jody.” After a nod and a small smile at Jody, Cas walked off to join Claire. Dean wanted to go with him, but he figured the guy needed some time with his kind-of-but-not-really adopted daughter. It was complicated.

“So!” Jody exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly. “Let me introduce you to some friends of mine who I believe you haven’t met yet.” She stepped in between them, linking her arms though theirs, and proceeded to drag them to the nearest group of hunters.

A few hours later Dean was chatting with a hunter named Dave, who was telling him about the time he’d killed not one, but two lamia’s (apparently the whole “they only show up in Greece” thing really was bullshit) and barely lived to tell the tale. Dean privately thought the guy was a bit full of himself, but he had to admit that he was a little bit impressed. He remembered how difficult they were to kill.

“I was in that hospital for two weeks, going stir crazy….” Dave was saying as Dean’s attention wandered, his eyes seeking out Castiel. He found him, talking to…Was that Max Banes, the witch-slash-hunter they’d met at Asa Fox’s wake? He was smiling at Cas, standing so close to him it made Dean grimace.

“…and I just knew I was lucky to be alive. Oh, hey Sam!” The sound of his brother’s name snapped Dean’s attention back to Dave, who was waving at someone behind Dean.

“Hey Dave,” Sam said, coming to stand next to Dean. “How’s it going? I heard about those lamia’s. Well done dude.” He lifted his beer in a salute, looking perfectly sincere. Dean could see that he wasn’t, but only because he knew Sam so well.

Dave grinned, looking very pleased with himself. “Thanks Sam, I was just lucky though. I was just telling Dean here how close I was to being a goner.”

He opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted by a group of rowdy, drunk hunters, who yelled out his name and grabbed him, asking him to regale them with the tale of how he survived the lamia attack. Only too happy to be the center of attention once more, Dave complied without another word to Dean or Sam.

“Looks like I didn’t actually need to come rescue you,” Sam remarked, watching the group walk away.

“Thanks anyway Sammy,” Dean said, turning to his brother. “I needed a break from the guy’s humblebragging.”

“So,” Sam said, changing the subject. His teasing grin instantly put Dean on edge. “I noticed you saw Cas talking to Max Banes. Or, well, not talking, really. Flirting’s more like.”

“What?!” Dean’s head whipped around, refocusing his gaze on Cas and Max, who were in fact still talking and standing way too close together.

“Oh yeah,” Sam continued, seemingly oblivious to Dean’s distress. “Did I not mention that Max was gay? He’s very forward, too, though I doubt Cas knows he’s being flirted with, because he’s _Cas_.” Sam shrugged.

“He…okay, well…good for him,” Dean stammered. There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t give his frustration with the situation away (which would lead to awkward questions he did _not_ want to answer). He was sure he wasn’t fooling Sam, though. But he could damn well try.

“Yea, I thought so. I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s not gonna go anywhere, but hey maybe they can have some fun together. I’m not judging.” He sounded so blasé about the whole thing Dean wanted to punch him.

“Yeah…fun…Uh hey I see that Cas doesn’t have anything to drink. I’m gonna bring him a beer. You want one, too?” _Please say no_.

“Nah I’m good, still got half of mine left,” Sam replied, tapping his beer bottle.

Dean moved to the bar, signalling the bartender for two beers. After paying for them, he went to join Cas and Max, catching the tail end of their conversation.

“…You should come to our store sometimes, we have a lot of books and blessed objects you might be interested in,” Max was saying, his eyes fixed on Castiel’s. “I know it’s a bit out of your way, but don’t worry about finding a place to stay. You can stay with us. We don’t have a couch, so you’ll have to stay in my room. I hope that’s-”

“Actually, angels don’t sleep,” Dean interrupted them smugly. “So he wouldn’t have to stay anywhere.” He pushed the beer in Cas’s hands. “Ain’t that right, Cas?”

“Yes that is correct,” Cas responded, taking the beer from Dean with a small frown. “Although lately, with my grace much diminished, I have found myself tired after expending a lot of it. I have on occasion needed a short rest to recuperate.” He looked ashamed, as if admitting that he wasn’t all-powerful pained him.

Dean couldn’t help but reach out to him in comfort, placing his hand on the angel’s back. “Come on Cas, everyone has to recharge their batteries sometimes. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” He glanced at Max, who was watching them both looking thoughtful.

“Still don’t mean you gotta stay in this guy’s room, though,” Dean couldn’t help but add.

“Aw,” Max said, the playful grin back on his face, “I never said we had to sleep.”

“Oh.” Castiel flushed, as if only now realising that yes, Max had been flirting with him all this time. Dean gritted his teeth, irritated and even insulted that Max would dare voice such a blatant come on to Cas when Dean was _right here, dammit_.

Without consciously thinking through the implications of what he was about to say and do, Dean dropped his hand from Cas’s back to his waist, squeezing the angel and closing the gap between their sides.

“Really? What were you planning on doing then?” He said casually. “And it’d better be something along the lines of ‘playing board games’, dude.” His grip on Cas’s waist tightened.

Max’s eyes flickered between Cas and Dean, his cocky grin slipping from his face.

“Dean.”

That single syllable, one that he’d heard so many times coming from Cas’s lips, immediately dropped the enormity of what he’d just done on him like a pile of bricks.

_Holy shit._

Afraid of what he’d see, Dean slowly turned his head to look at Cas, his arm dropping from Cas’s waist to hang uselessly at his side.

The warm, wondrous smile on Cas’s face took his breath away.

“Cas…” Dean didn’t know what to say. This moment felt too important to ruin it with anything else but the truth, and he wasn’t sure he could give Cas that, here in public surrounded by hunters.

“Hey, uh, sorry, I didn’t mean to flirt with your boyfriend man,” Max’s voice cut through Dean’s increasingly panicked thoughts. “That’s not really my style. Sorry to you both. I’ll leave you to it.”

With an apologetic look, he walked away, heading towards his sister who was all the way on the other side of the bar.

“We’re not…” Dean called after him, voice way too silent to carry over the noise of the crowd. He couldn’t even bring himself to finish the sentence, even though it would’ve been the truth.

Because he didn’t want it to be true.

He turned back to Cas, who was still looking so happy. “I am still unaccustomed to ‘being hit on’,” Cas said, and hey there were the familiar audible finger quotes, “or I would have stopped him sooner.”

“You would?” Dean nervously took a swig from his beer. “Why? I mean, he’s not my type but I’ve seen the looks he gets. Dude’s popular.”

“Don’t be stupid, Dean,” Cas admonished him and, in the next moment, took his hand and laced their fingers together. Dean almost dropped his beer.

“What kind of person would flirt with another man in front of his boyfriend?”

Dean was speechless, his mouth slightly open. He looked down at their clasped hands, before slowly looking back up to meet Cas’s eyes, which sparkled in amusement.

“As I said, I don’t know all that much about human courtship rituals, but I believe this is the moment you’re supposed to kiss me.” Cas was teasing him now, obviously greatly amused by his speechlessness.

“Damn angels,” Dean managed to grumble before pulling Cas in for a searing kiss.

He could hear whooping and cheering around him, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was kissing Cas so hard he saw stars. _That’ll teach him._

The loudest cheer, however, came from Sam at the back of the crowd, followed by a “ _Finally_!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. If you liked it, I would really appreciate it if you left a comment and/or kudo. This is just a oneshot so I won't be writing a sequel or anything, though :)
> 
> Kudos from me to anyone who recognizes where the title comes from!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at [destielonfire](http://destielonfire.tumblr.com).


End file.
